232 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 116., Mar. 20. '58. 



sake. Byron told my father at Brussels, in 1816, 

 that he was in love with her, at Banff, in his ninth 

 year. Most people would think this was what is 

 vulgarly called " calf-love," but it seems to have 

 been something more with Byron, for he made 

 many inquiries about her ; said he knew she was 

 happily married, and added that he retained a 

 most vivid recollection of the earliest events of 

 his life. He also told my father that some of his 

 earliest verses were addressed to Mary DufF, men- 

 tioning that she was a year older than himself, 

 though fro n her age, as given in the obituary, I 

 think they must have been born in the same year, 

 and that she was slightly his junior. He never 

 saw her, however, after he left school at Aber- 

 deen, and she became the wife of Mr. Robert 

 Cockburn, a wine merchant of Edinburgh, and 

 brother of Lord Cockburn, at whose hospitable 

 table, in " days of Auld lang syne," I had repeated 

 opportunities of testing the excellence of his 

 claret, for which he was celebrated among the 

 Scottish aristocracy ; and in the " high and palmy 

 days " of Scott at Abbotsford, Mr. Cockburn 

 took much pride in supplying the princely board 

 of that mansion with the choicest specimens of his 

 far-famed cellar. When I knew her, Mrs. Cock- 

 burn was in the zenith of her beauty — amiable, 

 graceful, highly accomplished, and eminently 

 lovely, — her features regular and finely cut — 

 her skin and complexion exquisite — and with 

 just enough of embonpoint to enhance her charms. 

 Dull must have been the eye, and cold the heart, 

 which they failed to captivate ! 



Geo. Huntly Gobdon. 



Olas's Canary Islands. — I possess an edition of 

 this well-known work, which differs in several 

 respects from that first published in one vol. 4to., 

 by the Dodsleys in 1764. My copy is in two 

 small 8vo. vols. ; and, besides containing all the 

 matter found -in the original edition, has a short 

 biography of the unfortunate author ; or, as it is 

 expressed on the title-page : — 



" By Capt. George Glas. With his Life and Tragical 

 End, on board the Sandwich of London ; and an Account 

 of the Apprehending, Trials, Conviction, and Execution 

 of the four Assassins, Perpetrators of that horrid Crime." 



But the most remarkable feature of this book 

 is, that it purports to be printed in London, " for 

 A. Pope and J. Swift in the Strand, 1767. What 

 is the meaning of this ? Both Watt and Lowndes 

 are silent with regard to it. That the relation of 

 the author's violent death about that period is cor- 

 rect, may be inferred from the advertisement on 

 the fly-leaf of the Dodsleys' edition, to the effect 

 that the Capt. intended to publish " speedily " a 

 " History and Description of certain parts of 

 Africa, with an Account of the Blacks inhabiting 

 the Banks of the Rivers Timbuctu and Senegal," 

 — an intention which was frustrated doubtless by 

 his untimely fate. According to the above bio- 



graphical sketch, " Captain " George Glas was a 

 Scotchman, and originally a practitioner of sur- 

 gery, but subsequently the master of a privateer. 

 The crew of the ship *' Sandwich " mutinied on its 

 homeward passage from Orataira, and murdered 

 their captain, as well as his officers and passengers, 

 including amongst the latter poor Glas, his wife, 

 and daughter. This happened some time in the 

 month of Nov. 1765, or the year following the 

 publication of his work on the Canaries. fi. 



Mould. — I look in Richardson's and Webster's 

 Dictionaries to find the derivation of this word as 

 used in " garden mould," " churchyard mould," 

 " plenty of mould," as an Essex farmer says, and 

 I find, if any, a definition certainly not clearer 

 than the thing to be defined. 



I take mould to be the fine earth of a mole-hill, 

 the work of a " mould-warp" as Derbyshire men 

 yet call the mole. In Danish it is muld-varp, 

 and in German maul-wurf, which means one who 

 casts up with his mouth. Mould is always ap- 

 plied to finely-pulverised earth, to earth as fine 

 as a mole-hill. This also explains the origin of a 

 word used in Lincolnshire (see Arthur Young's 

 Survey), the word warp. On the banks of the 

 muddy Humber the water is let on to the land 

 by sluice-gates, and the deposit is the " wurp," 

 that which is cast on, or as fine as a " mould- 

 warp's " mould. 



If I am right, the following passage in Paradise 

 Lost, long a puzzle to the commentators, which 

 some have emended by altering mould into mound, 

 and some, more wise, have passed over in silence, 

 will be a vexed question no longer : — 

 " Southward through Eden went a river large. 

 Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy hill 

 Past underneath engulphed, for God had thrown 

 That mountain as his garden mould-high raised 

 Upon the rapid current, which through veins 

 Of poi'ous earth with kindly thirst updrawn, 

 Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill 

 Watered the garden, there united fell 

 Down the deep glade, and met the nether flood 

 Which from his darksome passage now appears." 



Let mould be simply mole-hill, and all seems 

 clear enough. The river Mole in Surrey, with 

 its underground wanderings, may have been in 

 Milton's mind. A. Holt White. 



Bath. 



Death of Centenarians in 1857. — The following 

 is extracted from the foreign article in The Critic 

 for January 15, 1858, and may be added to " N. 

 & Q.'s" records of longevity : — 



" Death has been very busy during the last twelve- 

 months ; but we register our losses rather than our gains. 

 Most people live long enough in the world to do mischief; 

 how many live to give it gain.' Here is a list of some 

 who have exceeded the age of one hundred — a list 

 of patriarchs. They were not of a literary turn, did not 

 apparently keep journals; yet they may have subscribed 

 to the text — all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Died : 



A 



